A food blog all about healthy, simple, seasonal vegetable recipes

quinoa & chickpea salad

My role this week while my dad is visiting = food machine. Which I don’t mind one bit… he’s been hard at work knocking tasks off our “house-to-do” list, and I’m more than happy to be doing the heavy cooking rather than the heavy lifting. I can’t get him to stop for lunch (unless you count the beer… liquid lunch) so for dinners, big bowls of substantial food are in order.

I made this quinoa & chickpea salad the other night with some other stuff I happend to have… I had some beautiful radishes from my csa box… I always seem to have some walnuts and lemons around. And some nice walnut oil to enhance the nutty flavor.

In a large bowl, place minced garlic and arugula followed by your cooked warm quinoa. Toss it until incorporated. The arugula will wilt slightly which is what you want. (if you’re using salad greens, I would wait to add them until the end, I like arugula slightly wilted, salad greens, not. Raw slightly-wilted kale would also be good here).

Combine the rest of the veggies into the bowl of quinoa and pour dressing on top. Toss and taste. Add more salt & pepper if necessary.

I finished this with another drizzle of walnut oil and some shaved parmesan over individual bowls.

I, too, adore the combination of quinoa with the crunch of nuts. One of my recent favorites is quinoa plus pistachios. I also love how filling the combo is, and how it balances my blood sugar every time. Nice.